Anjengo Lighthouse is about 6 km by road from Kadakkavur Railway station on Ernakulam-Trivandrum route and is about 8 km from Atingal on NH-47. Anjengo (Anjathenga as pronounced locally) is a fishing village. It was the part of the territory of Attungal Rani’s principality in the 17th century which later was merged with state of Travancore.
Anjengo has a fort built (only a portion) by the Dutch towards the mid 17th century. After they withdrew, the British East India Co was given permission to open a trade centre at Anjengo. They subsequently established a factory here in 1684 and also completed the fort. The present Lighthouse is situated very close to the fort.
There is no evidence of any conventional aid to navigation existing prior to the present Lighthouse. It appears that in the beginning of 18th century, one of the round columns of the fort on sea side must have been in use for placing lantern whenever the vessel was expected to call.
The present lighthouse tower was in 1987 and the PRB-42 equipment supplied by M/s. Asia Navigation Aids, New Delhi was installed. The lighthouse was commissioned on 30th April 1988.
The `C’ type sealed beam lamps were replaced by `D’ type 30 V 200 W sealed beam lamps and the equipment was brought inside the GI lantern house of 2.4m diameter (FLEK type) on 30th April 2003. |
